June 12th is nearing, time to dust off whatever bit of patriotic spirit I've kept hidden since I lost faith in the vision inspired by the first EDSA uprising.
Just the other evening, while waiting for a cab on the corner of Buendia (Sen. Gil Puyat) and Chino Roces St., I heard two foreigners talking about the wonderful time they had the night before at a bar in P. Burgos and one of them remarked that it would have been better if the girls weren't such hustlers, then complained about having spent $200 too much on what he described as one of the sorriest lays he has ever had.
"I shouldn't have paid her at all. That bitch! If I wanted a lousy fuck, I would've stayed home with my wife -- she's a Filipina too." he had said, laughing heartily.
Feeling a bit disgusted with their conversation, I was thankful enough to finally see an empty cab cruising towards the direction I was going. As soon as the cab driver stopped in front of me, he rolled the window down and asked where I was headed, with an expression that seemed to tell me that he was just deciding whether or not he would drive me over. Even before I could answer, his eyes spotted the two foreigners staring intently at his cab and he suddenly blurted out that he wouldn't be able to drive me to wherever I was headed because he needed to get the taxi back to the garage. Thereafter he promptly drove a few meters down the road to a spot where the two foreigners had walked over to in an attempt to find another cab and in a matter of seconds, the foreigners were climbing in the taxi, speeding off presumably to another girly bar.
After a few more minutes of waiting, I was able to hail another cab and this time the driver agreed to convey me to my destination but on the condition that I pay an extra P20.00 on top of whatever his meter charge would be. Of course, I had to agree to this unfair situation because I was just too darned tired to get angry over getting bilked by a cab driver.
On the radio, news regarding the so-called Erap 5 was blaring and then there was some tidbit about a child that had been abandoned in a mall. The cab driver seemd quite intent on listening about the wrong doings of government and society at large, cursing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and former President Fidel Ramos for screwing everything up.
"They don't know how to do anything except steal our money and make life harder." he said.
Finally, upon arriving at my house's threshold and looking forward to some rest, I realize that my garbage had not been collected. On top of that, the neighbor's dog had managed to turnover the large plastic garbage bin where the garbage truck boys would get it from along with P10.00 snack money. The neighbor's dog did one hell of a job munching through all the trash and spreading it around in front of my gate. Then all hell breaks lose as two rival groups of colorum or illegal tricycle drivers begin hurling rocks and invectives at each other for purportedly making unwanted incursions into each other's territory. Another neighbor, a suspected druggie tries to drown out the noise by turning up the volume of his karaoke, which he had set up on his front pavement along with a couple bottles of beer.
This is more or less the kind of Philippines I see everyday and on June 12, I'll see if I can blot out this reality with a couple rounds of beer, enough to start celebrating whatever good I can remember about being a Filipino.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Light Speed Auto Show on June 10 and 11
I love autoshows...
The best one I've seen so far was the Manila International Autoshow (I am not really so sure about the title of the autoshow now because I into my third bottle of San Miguel Cerveza Negra). But, you know, for all its high power glitz and glamour -- what with all the spanking new models and very rare pieces of road art... It kinda lacked something... It kinda left you hanging a bit... Like, my problem basically is, some new cars are cool and all but customized cars and restored cars are what really makes a car show...
That's why I am definitely looking forward to Team Lightspeed's 2nd Autospeed show at the people's village in Tiendesitas (if you are on Oritgas going towards Pasig, just go past Meralco and MC Depot, you won't miss it). This car show has got a lot of soul.
The best one I've seen so far was the Manila International Autoshow (I am not really so sure about the title of the autoshow now because I into my third bottle of San Miguel Cerveza Negra). But, you know, for all its high power glitz and glamour -- what with all the spanking new models and very rare pieces of road art... It kinda lacked something... It kinda left you hanging a bit... Like, my problem basically is, some new cars are cool and all but customized cars and restored cars are what really makes a car show...
That's why I am definitely looking forward to Team Lightspeed's 2nd Autospeed show at the people's village in Tiendesitas (if you are on Oritgas going towards Pasig, just go past Meralco and MC Depot, you won't miss it). This car show has got a lot of soul.
Friday, May 26, 2006
PTCC Round 3 and 4 at SIR set for June 4 and 5
Rounds 3 and 4 of the Philippine Touring Car Championships are all set for June 4 and 5.
In rounds 1 and 2, Group One rivals Jody Coseteng and Kookie Ramirez battled it out with Ramirez emerging to sweep two firsts.
After round two Coseteng requested that all cars be checked out at scrutineering to make sure that everyone was within spec. It turns out that Coseteng's pistons was just a tad smaller than the rest, perhaps explaining his uncharacteristic sluggishness in the first two rounds. This, and perhaps the fact that Kookie Ramirez was really running faster with a more powerful engine (an EK3 Honda which my source says is the same as the rest which are Honda B16s) and a set up that was on the money as far as the Batangas Racing Circuit was concerned. Plus, may I add and this comes with all due respect, Kookie was having a good hair day as observers noted that he didn't commit any errors in both rounds.
There were a couple of spin outs and runs in the run-off, case in point would be the spectacular red gravel shower by Don Pastor at the double apex turn.
Group 3 was a bit more dicey as Francisco "Pacho" Blanco and Mateo Guidicelli rubbed quite a bit. Guidicelli comes from a victorious karting career but confesses to having a bit of trouble adapting to a much bigger car. He would have said that, compared to carting, driving a production car was like riding moby dick -- a water mammal with a fat ass, if it had one. In anycase, I am wondering if I should sell Guidicelli or Pacho some duct tape come next racing weekend as one of them invariably had a bumper hanging.
A car of note was Lory Uy's pink phantom done up by Auto dress code. It was a beautiful blur streaking the BRC. With some careful tuning by Velocity's Blanco Lory's car squeezed out 10 percent more horsepower, upping its asphalt ripping strength at the wheel to over 110 HP -- if I am not mistaken. She placed fourth in her group, which was not bad because last year she usually ran last -- which was fair considering she had to attend to a whole lot of matters including organizing work for Race Fans which runs the PTCC.
In rounds 1 and 2, Group One rivals Jody Coseteng and Kookie Ramirez battled it out with Ramirez emerging to sweep two firsts.
After round two Coseteng requested that all cars be checked out at scrutineering to make sure that everyone was within spec. It turns out that Coseteng's pistons was just a tad smaller than the rest, perhaps explaining his uncharacteristic sluggishness in the first two rounds. This, and perhaps the fact that Kookie Ramirez was really running faster with a more powerful engine (an EK3 Honda which my source says is the same as the rest which are Honda B16s) and a set up that was on the money as far as the Batangas Racing Circuit was concerned. Plus, may I add and this comes with all due respect, Kookie was having a good hair day as observers noted that he didn't commit any errors in both rounds.
There were a couple of spin outs and runs in the run-off, case in point would be the spectacular red gravel shower by Don Pastor at the double apex turn.
Group 3 was a bit more dicey as Francisco "Pacho" Blanco and Mateo Guidicelli rubbed quite a bit. Guidicelli comes from a victorious karting career but confesses to having a bit of trouble adapting to a much bigger car. He would have said that, compared to carting, driving a production car was like riding moby dick -- a water mammal with a fat ass, if it had one. In anycase, I am wondering if I should sell Guidicelli or Pacho some duct tape come next racing weekend as one of them invariably had a bumper hanging.
A car of note was Lory Uy's pink phantom done up by Auto dress code. It was a beautiful blur streaking the BRC. With some careful tuning by Velocity's Blanco Lory's car squeezed out 10 percent more horsepower, upping its asphalt ripping strength at the wheel to over 110 HP -- if I am not mistaken. She placed fourth in her group, which was not bad because last year she usually ran last -- which was fair considering she had to attend to a whole lot of matters including organizing work for Race Fans which runs the PTCC.
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